What is a decent recommendation to power these? At the moment I have an iPhone X with the included dongle. I believe this needs more power than the phone can really deliver so what can you get for $200 or less that will complement these nicely. (Apart from the necessary lighting to USB camera kit dongle.) O2 amp? Little Dot MKVI ? Any recommendations are welcome. Music all lossless and some hires 24/96 flacs/alacs.
Also do most people use the Onkyo HF Player? Or is there a better alternative.
NeverPayStickerNo prob. Also $200 AudioQuest - DragonFly Red USB DAC/Headphone Amplifier that can connect to your phone. Might throw that into the ring as well. I'm rocking a Vali 2 at the moment, kinda helps round out the sharper edges of the HE4XX and adds some dimensionality to the sound. The bass will probably be more powerful and deep from a solid state, not to say it's bad on the Vali 2. Pick your poison to a point I guess.
chrollsI am just taking a the Lightnning to USB Camera adapter -> DFR for a spin, sounds great, even better than the headphone out from a far more expensive integrated amp. Great option. The Vali 2 is interesting, and likely in the same price range once I account for shipping, etc. My one concern for the DragonFly/iPhone combo is the dongles aspect. A bit of a mess when all is attached to my eyes. ha. But I can’t get away from that with this platform.
Looking at the connections on the Schiit gear, and wondering how it hooks up ideally, I assume a Y connector from the lightning dongle to headphone jack.
NeverPayStickerAune X7S.
If you don't want to hook your phone up to the Amp all the time get a Chromecast Audio and stream your FLAC via Plex. I do it and it works wonderfully.
mindhead1Good idea, thanks! Seems too complicated in iOS to do anything flac, so that would do the trick. I‘lol check it out. The whole dongle thing is a tough one to live with, for me. Actually looked at a Fiio X3(?), looks interesting and as a bonus no dongles.
NeverPayStickerFor portable use, you can stack the TOPPING NX4 DSD with it and it will drive them nicely. It’s dropping right now on Massdrop. But finding a lightning to microUSB cable to make it work will be tough. But on amazon you can order it with the added cable.
hsdrggrInteresting. Where did you get that picture?
Maybe the DSD has been updated to support iOS. But I see no indication of that on the Massdrop listing.
mindhead1it was one of the photos for the NX4 DSD on ebay. I will know for sure soon, because I just ordered $600 of MFi DAC cables which which I should get in a week or so.
mindhead1Hahahaha. No, I sell high-quality DAC interconnect cables on eBay and I just ran out of the 5cm Apple MFI certified Lightning to microUSB DAC cables. So I just placed a restocking order with the manufacturer in Hong Kong. I should receive them in a week or so. Then I can test one of them with the NX4 DSD and my iPhone 8. Here are some pics of the cable.
hsdrggrThose are hard to find. When I got my NX4 that cable was missing. I contacted Topping and they shipped one to me from China.
Make sure to update post and let us know if cable works with NX4 DSD.
mindhead1mindhead1, I just received my order of cables from Hong Kong. In the bottom-right of the pic, this short 5cm silver L shaped MFi certified cable is specifically made to connect all the Fiio Q series DAC/Amps/DAPs to an iPhone, which I sell on eBay. That cable did not work to connect the NX4 DSD to an iPhone. However, I had four Meenova DAC cables laying around that did not work with the FiiO Q series units so I figured that I would try them. All four of them worked perfectly to pair an iPhone via its lightning port digital out to the Topping NX4 DSD microUSB input.
So this confirms that the Topping NX4 DSD does not require a CCK cable to pair with an iphone. It just requires a regular DAC OTG cable as long as it is not designed specifically for the FiiO Q series units. The attached picture is full resolution so the part numbers for the Meenova cables should be legible.
Regards,
Hsdrggr
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edited later.
It seems that Massdrop reduces the resolution of photos when uploaded, consequently the part numbers are not readable, so I am adding that info here.
The older Meenova cables were much more flexible than the newer ones. The reason Meenova updated the cable was because there was an iOS update which made the earlier cables non-functional with some iphone/dac combinations. For the Topping NX4 DSD both styles work fine with the iPhone. I like the earlier cable because of its flexibility; if you can find one somewhere, buy it. If not the newer one works just fine.
Listing of Meenova Lightning to MicroUSB DAC cables from Left to Right. All work with the NX4 DSD + all iPhones.
1. 4 foot/1.2m, long, original style cable (discontinued). sku# ms-lmc-4ft-bk, GTIN# 0797734311563
2. 15cm/6 inch, short original style cable (discontinued). sku# ms-lmc-4ft-bk, GTIN# 0797734311501
3. 4 foot (1.2m) long updated style cable. sku# ms-lmc-4ft-bk, GTIN# 0797734310870
4. 15cm/6 inch, short updated style cable. sku# ms-lmc-4ft-bk, GTIN# 0797734310863
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Meenova-Lightning-to-MicroUSB-USB-DAC-OTG-Cable-for-iPhone-iPad-iPod-6-inch-15cm/253486466690?hash=item3b04f88682%3Ag%3A250AAOSwvRpapxyh&_sacat=0&_nkw=0797734310863&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0
CamiaI don’t sell the Meenova DAC cables that allow an iPhone to connect to the Topping NX4 DSD. There is an eBay link for it in the post. I only sell the FiiO DAC specific cable, which I’m out of stock for now.
Also do most people use the Onkyo HF Player? Or is there a better alternative.